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Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Welcome Jude Sierra! And thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions for the readers.

Do your characters ever take over your writing and make the story go somewhere you didn't originally have in mind?

Absolutely. I’ve always felt as though I’m just some sort of vessel channeling a story from the ethos. I have a general plan, and I know the beginning, or a middle part that’s very evocative, and I know the end (or at least have a sense of the trajectory). But in the process of writing, my characters constantly surprise me, and occasionally give me the finger. Sometimes characters pop up I was absolutely not expecting – a good example of this would be Cam’s twin sister Peyton. Boy did she take me by surprise one day when I was driving around, trying to unlock why Cam is the person he is.

Have you always wanted to be a writer?

I would actually say that I’ve always been a writer. Not published, but I’ve always written. I started writing poetry and short stories as a kid, then in high school, and eventually studied poetry in college with an excellent mentor. A few years ago I had the amazing opportunity to travel to the Cape to work with another well known and respected poet. Thanks to NaNoWriMo, I’ve been writing novels since 2007.

What are you working on now?

I am working on a wonderful story about childhood friends who grow up in the Cape together. Their friendship is complicated and beautiful but also has an element of codependence – one has a lot of problems, and the other is often the only one holding him together. A life changing event makes them realize that their friendship is holding them back and that they have to learn to grow as independent men in order to really become actualized people. A chance meeting later in their lives brings them together, and they have to sift through memories and ghosts to try to work themselves back together.

How did you come up with the title for this book?

It was a collaborative effort with my Interlude team. We had a conference call to talk about it, because the working title was the name of the song that inspired it and it didn’t actually make sense for the book. This conversation will always be in my mind as a favorite moment in writing it. I’ll never forget my director of marketing and communications, CL Miller, doing a dramatic reading of the lyrics to Dark Horse – including the Jazzy Jay rap break. Although we didn’t get the title from that, in the course of the conversation we all kept gravitating to the initial moment Cam and Wren share in the library, and subsequent meetings there. Additionally, a big part of their dynamic is based on the rules Wren sets down: one of which is complete secrecy. Hush seemed to be the perfect title once we landed on it.

Will anyone in your family read this book? What kind of feedback do they provide?

My mother. She’s incredibly supportive, and we have a lot of hilarious banter about it. When I first told her – she had no idea I wrote M/M fic – we ended up having a hilarious moment in which she said I inspired her to start a new career in adult movies. There’s been a lot of laughter, and every time we talk about the book, she’s exploding with pride for me.

Release Date: May 19, 2015

Blurb:

Wren is one of “the gifted”—a college sophomore with the power to compel others’ feelings and desires. He uses his power as a game of sexual consent until Cameron, a naïve freshman, enters his life. As Cameron begins to understand his sexuality and gain confidence under Wren’s tutelage, Wren grows to recognize new and unexpected things about himself. Can their game become a relationship as the power shifts from teacher to student?

Wren looks… different. His eyes are wide in what seems almost like surprise. His lips, darker than Cam’s ever seen them, tremble. Cam doesn’t need any of Wren’s abilities to catch that Wren is overwhelmed. The only thing Cam knows how to offer is what he himself would want.

“Kiss me?” he asks.

Beautifully, Wren doesn’t resist. His clothes are rough against Cam’s skin all those zippers are so cold where Cam radiates heat. When Wren drapes himself on top of Cam, his body is heavier than Cam had imagined. Wren kisses Cam softly, seeking something, and Cam wants to believe it’s from a feeling of closeness, something sweet like the gratitude he feels right now. He cannot believe he just did that—that he let Wren do that. Hulled and shaking, Cam lets his hands wander because even after that perfect storm of pleasure, there is an itch under his skin for more.

Jude Sierra first began writing poetry as a child in her home country of Brazil. Still a student of the form, she has expanded her repertoire with her first novel, Hush.

She began writing long-form fiction by tackling her first National Novel Writing Month project in 2007, and in 2011 began writing in online fan communities, where her stories have thousands of readers.